Shops reopen after Game 4 on Monday

Shops open Tuesday at 7 a.m.

Game 4 in Edmonton

MORE WAYS TO GET 9NEWS

HOW TO ADD THE 9NEWS APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE

New tech toys don’t always have to have hefty price tags. Sometimes you don’t necessarily need the newest thing, just something new to you and better than what you had. This is where refurbished technologies come in. When properly restored, you can get years and years more life and work with gadgets that cost hundreds less than their newer counterparts. That’s why New York Post readers arrive today. We have 14 amazing deals on Refurbished Tech, all on sale and no discount code needed for any of them.

This powerful Bluetooth speaker is fully waterproof and built to withstand tough adventures, while giving you 20 hours of playtime. Portable with its own carabiner and able to connect to two devices at once, it’s the perfect adventure companion. A BestBuy reviewer put it simply, “It’s noisy, you don’t have to worry about water.” It looks well made and for the price you don’t even mind overusing it.

This refurbished speaker puts out 150W of power and comes with multiple LED party modes to match the beat, strobe, or pulse of the music. Sing along to your favorite tunes with the built-in mic or just enjoy music for up to 10 hours at a time with this awesome portable party.

Stay connected with headphones that adapt to the noise in your environment so you’re never out of earshot. Connect with Bluetooth and listen to crystal-clear sound or speak into the noise-canceling microphone.

MacBooks are made to last, and this beautifully refurbished Macbook certainly is too. Between the 13-inch screen, the Intel HD Graphics 6000, the 128 GB SSD or the super-fast processor, this machine can be a workhorse or a tool for all your favorite digital pastimes.

This refurbished Mac also comes with a lifetime license with Microsoft Office for Mac. Get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote, plus a refurbished Mac to use them in one awesome bundle.

Refurbished and ready to work or play, this Macbook features a large 13.3-inch screen, i5 processor, HD graphics and a 12-hour battery. Restored to like-new condition, this workhorse of a computer might be the perfect gift, even if it’s for yourself.

Even in 2017, this iPad was called the best tablet in the world, and it deserved it. The 9.7-inch multi-touch display is responsive and still stunning, and the HD cameras are more powerful than many modern phones.

HP builds beautiful, reliable laptops, and this high-performance machine with built-in Windows 10 Pro and 8GB of RAM is no exception. The Intel Core i5 processor still delivers enough processing speed for work, school, or play, and this model’s sleek design is built to last.

This amazing bundle includes a 2019 refurbished HP with 256GB of storage, an i5-7200 processor, Windows 10 Pro, and a 14-inch touchscreen, but that’s not all. You also get Microsoft Office for Windows which comes with a license for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher and Access, and it’s all yours for life.

This Apple adapter has a 60W output, magnetic connection, and LED lights to let you know when it’s working. Refurbished for retail, this smart charger recharges your battery when the machine is off or asleep and powers it when the battery is dead.

Powered by an Intel Pentium N4200 processor and Windows 10 Pro, this foldable ProBook is fast and ready for work or school. The 11.6-inch touchscreen is responsive and crystal clear, and everything on this device has been restored to near-new condition.

Compact and powerful, this computer comes with 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, Windows 10 Pro, and an i5-6400T processor. It’s all packed into a model that’s just seven inches wide. All that power in such a small space is what prompted an Amazon reviewer to call it the “perfect little PC for mounting behind a monitor or under a desk.”

This Elitebook with Windows 10 Pro features integrated graphics, 256GB storage and a wide variety of ports for maximum connectivity. Restored to near-new condition, this computer is ready for hobby work or heavy software.

This 4G unlocked iPad has 10 hours of battery life, an amazing 1.2MP FaceTime HD camera, an 8MP iSight camera, and the powerful Apple A8 chip that can run demanding apps without any issues. In addition to the iPad, this bundle also includes a pre-installed tempered glass screen protector, a snap-on black plastic case, and a wall charger.

Prices subject to change.

• In May, the United States added more jobs than economists estimated, as part of a robust recovery.
• But the retail sector lost 61,000 jobs in May.
• This is another example of Americans shifting away from spending on goods and towards services.

Even as fears of economic turbulence loom, labor market data tells a different story: The country is creating very good jobs.

In May, the United States added 390,000 non-farm payrolls, down from April’s gain of 436,000. That’s above the 325,000 jobs that economists polled by Bloomberg estimated the country would add.

The recovery is also quite widespread.

“The report shows that the labor market is ignoring fears of a potential slowdown,” Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, told Insider.

But, while nearly every major industry saw jobs added in May, that was not the case for retail, which saw a net loss of 60,700 jobs, with most of the loss coming from stores. of miscellaneous goods. It shows how Americans are shifting their spending priorities away from big-box stores with inflated prices — and instead investing that money in great experiences.

As the chart above shows, leisure and hospitality led the way in job growth. While leisure and hospitality saw a net gain of 84,000 jobs in May, that’s still 1.3 million payrolls below the February 2020 level – a sign of the recovery yet to come.

Nick Bunker, director of economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab, said it may be some time before U.S. leisure and hospitality returns to pre-pandemic levels in February 2020. One reason for that could be that there isn’t as much demand as there used to be, he added.

When Everything Costs More, Americans Want to Spend on Experiences

The loss of big box jobs makes sense given recent lackluster revenue calls, Bunker pointed out. The drop may also be due to concerns about excess staff, he said.

“It’s a little surprising ‘that the losses’ show up so quickly and so broadly in the data — but that probably seems to be the culprit for what we’re seeing there,” Bunker said.

Bunker said if there was a slowdown in transportation and warehousing, which saw a net gain of 47,000 in May, it could show “we’re seeing the labor market impacts of a shift in consumption “.

Consumer spending is shifting from goods to services, according to Zhao: “We should naturally see a decline in retail trade and a resurgence in industries like travel and tourism.”

There were already signs of a retail slowdown. The number of retail job openings plummeted in April 2022. Big box retail stores reported weaker than expected profits, and retailers may even start slashing items again as they are stuck with excess inventory.

Part of this may be because US customers are acting with their wallets and resisting rising costs. With gasoline prices hitting record highs and inflation still hovering around 41-year highs, it makes sense that Americans are spending less, especially amid fears that consumers are burning through the savings they have already.

They’re still willing to shell out the cash for a summer break, though. Vacations are also getting more expensive, and high gas prices mean some Americans are considering fewer or shorter trips this summer, but that’s not stopping them from looking for time. TSA checkpoint travel figures show people are still traveling at rates close to pre-pandemic levels. Spending on goods is fairly stable, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, but spending on services is growing.

It’s part of a “normalization,” according to Zhao, where the economy is moving from a pandemic era to a more post-pandemic era, and away from high retail spending.

“We’re not in the phase we were in last year, where the economy was really accelerating dramatically,” Zhao said. “Now we’re settling into this new normal, where growth might be a bit slower – but this slowdown is more of a normalization than a sign that we’re about to fall off a cliff.”

MARQUETTE COUNTY, Mich. (WLUC) — With kayaks, canoes, and boats now available for rent — and more fishing supplies in stock — Gwinn Bait & Tackle is ready for summer.

After struggling to overcome supply chain issues due to COVID-19, the store increased inventory to prepare.

“We’ve been able to get a lot of our orders out of stock over the last two seasons, so with COVID finally easing and supply chains recovering, we’ve been stocking up,” said said Jamie Vincent, head of Gwinn Bait & Tackle.

Vincent said the store on M-35 currently has the largest inventory he has seen in four years of running the business.

“Inventory is like before Covid, everything is pretty much back to normal and business is good,” Vincent said.

Meanwhile, at Wilderness Sports in downtown Ishpeming, co-owner Raymond Sundquist said the store’s wide range of outdoor products were mostly available.

“Certain types or brands of items are a bit difficult to obtain, but often we can replace them with a different brand. We usually have something to cover everyone who comes, it might not be the brand you want. ‘they’re looking for,’ Sundquist said.

Both stores are gearing up for a busy tourist season. Vincent said summer brings customers who enjoy Forsyth Township’s 52 lakes.

“A lot of people from out of town own camps and such on these lakes, so business in Gwinn in the summer is great fun and good,” Vincent said.

Sundquist said tourism is already starting to pick up.

“We had quite a few tourists over Memorial Day weekend looking for a variety of different products,” Sundquist said.

For more store product information, you can click here for Gwinn Bait & Tackle and here for Wilderness Sports.

Copyright 2022 WLUC. All rights reserved.

Twenty-five years ago, the 600 block of Good Hope Street had become much quieter. At the end of May 1997, Sam Unnerstall closed the pharmacy that his father, Frank, had established 70 years earlier.

In an article in the Southeast Missourian, Sam spoke about his father, the business, and changing times in Haarig.

Posted May 27, 1997 in southeastern Missouri:

Carol and Sam Unnerstall are closing Unnerstall Pharmacy at 630 Good Hope St. The business has been open on Good Hope Street since 1927. (Lou Peukert ~ Southeast Missouri Archives)

CLOSING OF UNNERSTALL AFTER 70 YEARS

By Sam Blackwell
Southeastern Missourian

Sam Unnerstall was 10 years old when his father, Frank, moved the family pharmacy to new premises at 630 Good Hope St. Sam worked in the fountain and was in charge of the comics.

When Unnerstall Pharmacy closed on Friday after 70 years in business on Good Hope Street, he said: ‘It’s going to be hard to leave and leave all these people.

Unnerstall’s is one of the last of a group of businesses that once made the now nearly moribund Good Hope neighborhood one of the city’s thriving shopping centers.

The site was occupied by a blacksmith’s shop at the turn of the century, when this section of Cape Girardeau was known as Haarig and was alive with the sounds of tradesmen at work and saloons.

Frank Unnerstall opened a pharmacy in the block on February 12, 1927. In 1934, he became the first Cape Girardeau retailer licensed to sell alcohol after the repeal of Prohibition.

He moved the company to the current address in 1943. Sam joined the company in 1958 after graduating from pharmacy school, getting married and leaving the army. He eventually took over the business from his father, who died in 1978.

When the Orpheum Theater opened on Good Hope, Unnerstall did a good business making ice cream sodas and cherry cokes. “The movie would come out at 10 or 11 p.m. and we would stay open until the show was over,” Unnerstall said. “And a lot of people would come on Sunday mornings and hang out.”

Good Hope continued to be a bustling shopping center through the 1950s and 1960s, with its own doctors, restaurants, and grocery stores. The exodus of doctors to the Medical Arts Building on Broadway marked the beginning of Good Hope’s commercial decline, at least from a pharmacist’s perspective.

The Gladish-Walker furniture store, Hirsch Bros. mercantile, Sunny Hill Food Store, Kinder’s Drugs, Bierschwal’s Meat Market, Cape Cut Rate Drugs, Farmers & Merchants Bank, a Kroger store, Cofer’s Men’s Store – Unnerstall remained as all eventually moved away from Good Hope Street or disappeared.

Unnerstall’s Drug Store is visible on the right in this photograph, taken on Good Hope Street in the 1950s. (GD Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missouri Archives)

At one point, Unnerstall considered moving the store to the western part of town, where most of the business expansion is taking place. “It would be like moving into a hornet’s nest there,” he said.

Now the last pharmacy on the south side of town will soon be gone. Unnerstall plans to sell the building and transfer its prescriptions to another pharmacy.

The pharmacy industry has changed drastically during his years as a pharmacist. “We used to do a lot of prep,” Unnerstall said. Today, medicines are mainly manufactured by companies, and the small family pharmacy is almost an anachronism.

Unnerstall’s often receives calls from people looking for a drug that is no longer manufactured. “They think we might still have some,” says Carol Unnerstall, Sam’s wife and part-time store employee.

Unnerstall’s still stocks Rock Candy crystals for those who prefer to make their own cough syrup. Just add whiskey.

Unnerstall’s has never been robbed in all its years of operation. However, it was closed due to inclement weather.

The Cap Girardiens remember 1979 as the year of the great blizzard. Unnerstall spent three nights stuck in his store after a 24-inch snowfall brought the town to a standstill.

He had gone to the store that Saturday evening to check on a broken window and decided to stay to insure against burglary. It would be Tuesday night before he could go home.

He slept on the floor and ate the merchandise. “I had lots of candies and chips,” he said.

Two of the store’s employees, Cheryl Cook and Sarah Williams, have been working there for less than a year. But Don Bernhardt, a former army pharmacist technician, has worked at Unnerstall for nearly 33 years.

“Don has been like family,” Carol said.

He is looking for a job but knows: “I will miss it.

The decision to leave the company was made because Unnerstall is approaching retirement age and has back problems. He hopes they will improve if retirement allows him to spend less time on his feet.

He has no dramatic plans. “She’s worried about me rearranging her kitchen and her closets,” he said, nodding at Carol. And their son could use a hand on his farm near Sedgewickville.

“I also have a grandson who I will be busy with,” he said.

Once again, Sam Unnerstall is in charge of the comics.

Published June 2, 1997 in the Southeastern Missourian:

Charlotte Craig, left, congratulated Carol and Sam Unnerstall on their retirement at a surprise luncheon on Wednesday. The Unnerstalls are closing the Unnerstall Pharmacy, which opened at 630 Good Hope in 1927. (Fred Lynch ~ Southeast Missouri Archives)

Frank Unnerstall acquired the Holloway Drug Store, 626 Good Hope St., after that operation went bankrupt in February 1927.

Vice President Harris speaks during a memorial service for Ruth Whitfield, victim of the Buffalo supermarket shooting, at Mt. Olive Baptist Church on Saturday in Buffalo, NY

Patrick Semansky/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Patrick Semansky/AP

Vice President Harris speaks during a memorial service for Ruth Whitfield, victim of the Buffalo supermarket shooting, at Mt. Olive Baptist Church on Saturday in Buffalo, NY

Patrick Semansky/AP

BUFFALO, NY – Mourners laid to rest the last of 10 black people killed in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket with a service on Saturday that became a call to action and an emotional call to end hate and violence that have ravaged the nation.

The funeral of Ruth Whitfield, 86 – the oldest of 10 people killed in the attack two weeks ago – included an impromptu speech by Vice President Kamala Harris. She attended the service at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Buffalo with second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Harris told mourners it was time for ‘all good people’ to stand up against the injustice that happened at Tops Friendly Market on May 14, as well as at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and other mass shootings.

“This is a time that demands all good people, all people who love God, to stand up and say we won’t tolerate this. Enough is enough,” said Harris, who hadn’t planned to speak and came to the microphone at the urging of Reverend Al Sharpton. “We will come together based on what we all know we have in common, and we will not let these hate-motivated people separate us or cause us to feel fear.”

After the funeral, Harris and Emhoff visited a memorial outside the supermarket. The vice president left a large bouquet of white flowers at the site and the couple stopped to pray for several minutes. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden had laid flowers at the same memorial on May 17 and visited the families of the victims. Biden is expected to travel to Texas for a visit this weekend with families of victims of Tuesday’s school shooting.

Harris later told reporters that the administration was not “sitting around waiting to find out what the solution looks like” to the problem of gun violence in the country.

“We know what works on that,” she said, reiterating her support for background checks and a ban on assault weapons. Harris said the nation also needed to come together.

“We have to agree that if we want to be strong as a nation, we have to stay strong, identifying our diversity as our unity,” she said.

It’s been a sad week of farewells for the family and friends of Buffalo shooting victims, a group that includes a restaurant worker who went to the market to buy his 3-year-old son’s birthday cake ; a father and die-hard Buffalo Bills fan who worked as a school bus aide; and a 32-year-old sister who moved to town to help a brother who was battling leukemia.

Whitfield, a grandmother and mother of four, was inside the supermarket after visiting her husband of 68 years in a nursing home when a gunman identified by police as 18-year-old Payton Gendron , began the murderous assault.

A mourner embraces Angela Crawley, left, daughter of Buffalo supermarket shooting victim Ruth Whitfield, before a memorial service at Mt. Olive Baptist Church.

Patrick Semansky/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Patrick Semansky/AP

A mourner embraces Angela Crawley, left, daughter of Buffalo supermarket shooting victim Ruth Whitfield, before a memorial service at Mt. Olive Baptist Church.

Patrick Semansky/AP

Authorities said Gendron, who is white, targeted the store three hours from his home in Conklin because it is in a predominantly black neighborhood.

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who paid a fiery tribute to Whitfield at the start of the funeral service, called on all ‘accomplices’ who aided and abetted ‘that monster’ who opened fire in the supermarket to be held officials, from gun manufacturers and distributors to the suspect’s parents.

Crump said those who “educated and radicalized this insecure young person” should also be held accountable for taking Whitfield away from her family, the Buffalo community and the planet. He called her “one of the most angelic figures we have ever known”.

“It’s a sin that this depraved young man, not a boy, went and killed Ruth Whitfield and the ‘Buffalo 10,'” Crump said, referring to the victims.

Sharpton described being shocked to learn that the gunman had live-streamed his assault on Twitch, noting that his mother grew up in Alabama, where hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan once killed black people.

Today, he said, white supremacists “take pride in practicing racism.”

Sharpton advocated for gun control measures during his eulogy, saying all communities must come together and “disarm the enemies”.

“There is an epidemic of racial violence that is accommodated by gun laws that allow people to kill us,” he said. “You don’t have to like us, but you shouldn’t have easy access to military weapons to kill us.”

A total of 13 people were shot in the attack that federal authorities are investigating as a hate crime. Three people survived.

Whitfield was the mother of former Buffalo Fire Marshal Garnell Whitfield.

Gendron is charged with first degree murder and is being held without bond. His lawyer pleaded not guilty on his behalf.

“Once [customers] are in the store, they can fill the rest of their cart, on which the store could make a higher margin,” said Ernest Baskin, associate professor in the food marketing department at St. Joseph’s University.

Plus, shoppers know exactly how much their rotisserie chicken meal is costing and they’ll notice an increase. Like the price of a gallon of milk or a carton of eggs, the price of a roast chicken helps define consumers’ overall perception of a store’s value. Pricing Roasted chickens incorrectly could have far-reaching consequences.

BJ CEO Bob Eddy underscored the importance of this strategy last week: “We have continued to invest in our value proposition. A good example is our signature roast chicken,” he said during a presentation. an earnings call, later adding that even though BJ’s production costs for rotisserie chickens have jumped, the company has kept its prices firm because it’s “such an important thing for our members.”

Also at Giant Eagle, “our rotisserie chicken is a very popular center-of-the-plate dish,” spokesman Dan Donovan said. “We believe it is important to maintain a strong overall value for this item.”

Keeping rotisserie chicken at $4.99 is such a big strategy for Costco that it built a $450 million poultry processing plant in Nebraska to supply its own poultry to stores. The factory, which opened in 2019, processes more than 100 million chickens a year.

Barricaded buildings.

Vacant lots.

Gun violence.

Lack of economic investment and jobs.

A unique grocery store where residents can buy quality food at affordable prices.

These are issues East Side residents have faced for years.

Following the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 10 people at the community’s only supermarket — the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue — locals who spoke with Investigative Post last week said they hoped the tragedy could bring good.

Hopeful, but not optimistic.

Several residents said they had heard the rhetoric of real change on the East Side before. They are still waiting.

“When something like this happens, it’s unfortunate that people don’t see anything change,” said Kendra Campbell, 33, a registered nurse and licensed real estate agent who helped distribute food to East Side residents at outside of the Hauts Store compound.

“I hope and pray that it will be something different this time,” she added.

Campbell said the area surrounding the Tops store was no stranger to violence.

Kendra Campbell

She pointed to a gated house on Riley Street, just opposite Tops, where Campbell said she had attended a party as a teenager. She said the party ended abruptly when someone with a gun started shooting at the building.

“There is another person with a gun at this point,” she said. “That’s the only thing that’s changed.”

Campbell noted that today the house sits empty, sitting next to a vacant lot. She said neglected properties like these are common on the East Side.

“This is a community that needs help – real help,” she said.

The lack of substantial change was a recurring theme among East Side residents who spoke with Investigative Post.

follow us on Facebook, Twitter, instagram & Youtube

While Mayor Byron Brown and other politicians have suggested that millions of public dollars spent on various initiatives have led to community improvements, residents said they don’t see it.

“Look around,” said Jeanetta Sullivan, owner of Pudgy Potatoes, a Buffalo restaurant business. “You can see it for yourself, all the abandoned buildings and the vacant lots and the houses and the houses that are boarded up. Look around. We are already in need.

Jeanetta Sullivan

Sullivan, 32, said the condition of the neighborhood surrounding her grandmother’s home on Butler Avenue has deteriorated.

“I really feel like we have to deal with the fact that the East Side of Buffalo is hurting. It’s been hurting for a long time.”

Although she remembers seeing former mayor Anthony Masiello at the local YMCA and other places on occasion, Sullivan said these days he felt Buffalo’s political leaders only came on the East Side than when they were seeking votes or being forced to respond to a tragedy like the shooting. at the peaks.

“We had so much empathy. Right now the community is really looking for real action,” Sullivan said.

Raynard and Pamela Scrivens, of Hickory Street, planned to go to the Tops store on the day of filming to buy ice cream. They said an unexpected visit from their son delayed the trip, preventing them from being in Tops when the shooter opened fire.

“When I heard about it, it was just surreal,” Pamela said. ” It’s always like that. You just can’t grab it.

Both Raynard and Pamela said the fact that Tops is the only grocery store in the area says a lot about conditions on the East Side.

Pamela and Raynard Scrivens

“It’s a desert as far as supermarkets go,” Raynard said.

Without Tops, Pamela said many residents would be forced to shop at area convenience stores where they would pay higher prices for lower quality food.

“That’s what they will be reduced to,” she said.

” That’s all we have. This is it,” she said, referring to the Tops store.

Rahsaan Delain is the Health Equity Project Coordinator at the Buffalo Community Health Center, which offers counseling sessions for East Side residents who were affected by the shooting.

Rahsan Delain

The 39-year-old said people were experiencing trauma, shock and “so much pain you can’t even imagine”.

Frequently asked question by advisers: why here and why us?

“As a black community, in many ways, we’re really not surprised because this has been a theme for us throughout our history,” he said.

For a community just beginning to retreat from the COVID-19 pandemic, Delain said the experience has been even more difficult.

“There are already inequalities and disparities in our community and this is just another success story,” he said.

Delain also said he thinks it says a lot about conditions on the East Side when you consider that it “had to fight people” just to get Tops to open a store in the neighborhood.

Although he said he sees evidence that public investment is starting to make a difference in the community, he thinks a lot more work is needed.

“There just needs to be more,” he said. “It just has to be together and it has to really impact the people it needs to impact.”

“What I’ve heard from people is that when the cameras go away and the media go away, people will forget,” Delain added.

“I’ve also heard that people want a real change, a signature change.”

Carl Matthews, an elder at Fishers of Men Outreach Ministry on Bailey Avenue, said there was a wide range of emotions on the

Carl Matthews

East Side following the shooting. He said many people are extremely sad, others vindictive.

“People don’t really know how to feel,” he said.

How does Matthews feel?

In a word: “Sold out”.

With a further rise in COVID cases, hopes for a relatively pandemic anxiety-free summer seem doomed. William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and co-director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, spoke to the Gazette about the latest surge shortly after the United States reached another grim milestone: 1 million death. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

GAZETTE: How does this surge compare to Omicron’s surge in January?

HANAGE: Nowhere even close to January. What we see is driven by a sub-variant of BA.2, which itself was pretty lackluster, at least in those parts. But we have seen more and more cases due to BA.2.12.1, which is a lineage first detected in upstate New York. It has a mutation in the spike protein which we believe makes it better able to re-infect people who have recovered from previous infections – including BA.1 – and which is shared by BA.4 and BA.5, growing in South Africa. That’s why we’re seeing a lot of cases, but they’re much lower than in January, even taking into account that we’re underestimating cases because more people are doing rapid tests and not being counted in the official figures.

For many people, myself included, it may seem like COVID is everywhere right now. But you must remember that this is a virus that spreads through networks. If you and your network have not been overwhelmed with BA.1, it means you are in a network that is more likely to get BA.2 because the people involved are less likely to have had the extra dose of immunity that came from BA.1. So that’s one of the reasons the transmission schemes look so distinctive. It is also certainly the case that we are seeing more transmission and more cases in schools now than we were with BA.1. When schools close — that means colleges like Harvard and K-12 education — it’s going to change contact patterns and things just might change.

GAZETTE: It feels like we’re in a decidedly different phase.

HANAGE: We are.

GAZETTE: Would you say we are in a post-pandemic phase? Could this be the first of the post-pandemic waves?

HANAGE: I don’t like having a cut because COVID is not going to be eradicated. There’s going to be a transition from acute pandemic risk to a point where people like me – infectious disease epidemiologists – pay a lot of attention to it the same way we pay attention to influenza. We are heading in that direction but we are not there yet. To give some context, I think you’ll agree that right now the country is doing relatively well, in terms of deaths and hospitalizations. But if the weekly death numbers were added up over the year – no fluctuations, no flare-ups, just continuous “good” death numbers – it would still equal two bad flu seasons. When this virus is “good”, it is still something that would be considered historically bad in terms of respiratory infections. And, of course, we can expect things to get worse in the South in the summer and pretty much everywhere before the winter, and that’s assuming there aren’t any new variant curveballs.

GAZETTE: If you had a case in your household at this point in the pandemic, how would you handle it?

HANAGE: I can tell you what we did — our children got infected. First, sign up for ongoing household transmission studies. There’s one being done in Beth Israel. We were lucky to have air purifiers, which we turned on. We wore masks, but not continuously, not religiously. We kissed while wearing masks. We ate outside when we could and when it was cold we ate inside. For what it’s worth, neither my wife nor I got infected. We also did very regular rapid tests – we actually did daily PCR tests because we were in the household transmission study.

My advice to a member of the public would be to remember that you could be contagious and not know it. Whenever you leave the house and go to a place with high transmission, such as meeting with vulnerable people or attending a large gathering where you could trigger a superspreader event, try to do a quick test beforehand. If you’re not going to have close contact — like at the grocery store — wear a good quality mask. If you have symptoms, don’t go outside, but don’t assume that having no symptoms means there’s no chance you’ll have them. If the person in your household has had it for five days, don’t assume they are no longer contagious. A large number of people in this category will still be contagious. The CDC’s advice — and my recommendation — is that if the infected person has to leave the house, make sure they’re wearing a well-fitting, good-quality mask. This will greatly reduce the risk of transmission to others.

GAZETTE: What about mandatory restrictions? Are we already there?

HANAGE: I wear a mask whenever I’m outside the house indoors in a public space and honestly can’t see that’s a big deal. I would take off my mask for things that are important to me, if that’s a risk I want to take. For example, this weekend is the end of the Premier League and I am a tortured Arsenal fan. I would normally go watch this with friends at a bar. I would test first, but if I did become infected, I would have confidence in the ability of vaccines to protect me from the most serious consequences. But I’m not going to because I’m taking a flight next Friday, to the UK, and I don’t want to get infected before the flight.

GAZETTE: We want to be lucid, to understand both the risks and the measures we can take to reduce them.

HANAGE: I also point out that if you are likely to be more severely affected, talk to your doctor about paxlovid. That helps. You hear about rebounds and they happen, but paxlovid is still a beneficial drug. If you’re immunocompromised, talk to your doctor about options, like evusheld, that may offer some protection. Vaccines, therapeutics and masks, taken together, are a powerful way to fight a virus that once threatened to destroy healthcare. A major challenge for public health today is to ensure that the protections we have obtained are equitably distributed.

As I walked around, going places, working and coming back, I watched the lines of people going into nightclubs, I watched people in restaurants, I watched people leading a full life — maybe not like 2019 — and I just marvel that it’s been achieved. This is happening with a similar amount of infection as in January 2021 – one of the worst times of the pandemic. Yet this does not translate into the same impacts on health care. This is quite amazing when you consider that in January 2021 there were considerably more mitigations than we have now. And I feel a real sense of accomplishment.

GAZETTE: He was tortured at times, but society is in a much different place.

HANAGE: As a society, we are in a much better place. In public health, you don’t see the lives you save. The kid who doesn’t die of meningitis at 17 or 18 because he was vaccinated as a child — you don’t see it. And, as we talk about the horror of a million deaths in the United States, we should tell ourselves that it could have been much worse. The people who made the sacrifices in 2020 that delayed the arrival of the virus in people who would have died had they not had the opportunity to be vaccinated deserve endless gratitude. This remains the case now. People who do things to prevent others from getting infected save lives. We don’t see those lives being saved in the ER, so it’s easy to assume that’s not the case. Focus on the positives.